Ace of Spades HQ

« Vincent D'Onofrio Wins Liza Manelli Award For Emotional Stability | Main | Daschle Says Goodbye »

November 17, 2004

Andrew Sullivan Watch: Flat Tax Is Like Gay Marriage

Which, of course, means it's totally awesome, and, I imagine, that if you don't support it you're like the anti-miscegenation racists of the 50's:

The political principle is equally simple: government should, as far as possible, treat all its citizens equally. Politicians often talk about equality, but they seldom live up to its core meaning. A true egalitarian doesn't believe in affirmative action, because it means the government discriminates on the basis of race. A real believer in equality opposes heterosexual-exclusive civil marriage, because it means the government discriminates on the basis of emotional/sexual orientation. And such a liberal also opposes punitive or "progressive" taxation, because it means the government discriminates on the basis of personal success.

Gay marriage-- is there anything it can't do?

I think he's in full scurry-back-the-right mode now. That bandwidth fund of his must be just about depleted.

Thanks to JimB.

posted by Ace at 01:27 PM

Comments

"government discriminates on the basis of emotional/sexual orientation"

Emotional orientation?

What the hell is next, I ask?

I thought the only place where discrimination based on emotional orientation didn't occur was the government (i.e., postal workers).

Posted by: Nicholas Kronos on November 17, 2004 01:32 PM

Ace, that entire post was gob-smackingly vile.

Posted by: Josh Martin on November 17, 2004 01:47 PM

Not that you're one to easily take offense, God knows.

Posted by: ace on November 17, 2004 01:49 PM

I'm still waiting for the AS post on how gay marriage is JUST LIKE the grand unified theory.

Posted by: hobgoblin on November 17, 2004 02:24 PM

Ace... I am not sure what my emotional orientation is. I am having a crisis, and emotional identity crisis. Call the hospital and see if the bed in the ward next to Vincent is available.

Posted by: Jennifer on November 17, 2004 02:35 PM

Told you he would =p.

I personally have no interest in him. Let him flog another group of people as homophobes.

Posted by: Elric on November 17, 2004 02:36 PM

The sad thing is that the scurrying will work (you're 100% right, I think; nothing else explains his vigorous attacks on the attitude that gay marriage bans were the driving force behind Bush's reelection). Even I, who grew to detest Sullivan over the last 9 months or so, was genuinely heartened by his performance on Maher (and I don't mean the buttocks fondling). Seeing someone dress down Bill Maher for treating Chomsky "like a folk hero" felt damn good no matter who was doing it.

But not to fear. If ever I feel moved to hit his tip jar, I'll just hit yours instead.

Posted by: Il Padrino on November 17, 2004 02:50 PM

So when is Andrew just gonna come out as a full on Libertarian? If he joined that party he could be safe in accusing both of the major parties of homophobia, racism, elitism, communism, or anything else he dreamt up, all without the inconvenience of having to make any kind of ideological compromise at all. He could be forever safe in the womb of cynicism and abstraction.

Posted by: The Apologist on November 17, 2004 02:52 PM

Here's my favorite recent backpedal by Sulli:

"I don't believe that we should give up or change the fight for marriage equality. But I do think it behooves people like me to listen to what the other side is saying. I'm struck by how many of you have told me that your real objection is not with the issue of marriage equality itself, but by the means of achieving it. Court-imposed mandates rub people the wrong way, even those who support including gay couples within the family structure. Extra-legal tactics like Gavin Newsom's particularly rankle. I wasn't sanguine about this at the time but minimized it because I was so swept up in the emotion of seeing gay couples finally getting the respect they deserve. I should have been stricter in opposing Newsom's grandstanding. I'll have more to say in a forthcoming TNR piece. But it's important to hear what others who disagree with me are saying. I'm trying harder."

Well, it's good to see that I'm no longer necessarily a "bigot" or "homophobe" because I oppose government-sanctioned gay marriage. Well, at least not until the gay marriage issue comes to the forefront again, right Andrew?

Posted by: Mike on November 17, 2004 02:59 PM

"On a personal note: this blog saw an explosion of traffic last month, like many others. It will subside, I expect, after the election. But it's great to have so many new readers - close to 100,000 a day. It would be a bandwidth nightmare if we didn't also have the white knight of Henry Copeland's Blogads. Again, the ads have retreated after a bumper election month. But they're still there. And the income has made it possible for me to keep on blogging."

Uh, so what are the pledge drives for?

Posted by: aaron on November 17, 2004 03:24 PM

Right on. Sullivan is scrambling to the right before he loses his "I'm the gay conservative columnist" appeal.

Look for him to mention same sex marriage less and conservative fiscal policy more.

Then, after he figures most have forgotten his squealing during the campaigns, he'll start sounding hawkish on Iraq again.

Posted by: Gleeful Extremist on November 17, 2004 03:49 PM

By the way, has Instapundit, who blows anyone's bandwidth away, ever, ever complained about hosting costs? Ever?

Posted by: Elric on November 17, 2004 04:14 PM

Does this mean that if I support a "national sales tax", I am an evil, red-state voting, homophobic rube?

'Cause I am....I just want to know if the NST is the causal effect, or simply a symptom.

Posted by: Senator PhilABuster on November 17, 2004 04:35 PM

Not that I'd look to Sully for any sort of consistency anyway, but wouldn't the only tax that doesn't discriminate on the basis of personal success be a poll tax? Even with a flat tax, those who earn more pay more.

Posted by: cthulhu on November 17, 2004 04:40 PM

"A real believer in equality opposes heterosexual-exclusive civil marriage"

Apparently there were no real believers in equality prior to sometime in the last 3-5 years.

MLK: not a real believer in equality, for example.

Mike,

Right. Now you're only bigot if you don't vote for somebody who thinks that every human society in history has defined marriage in a way that is (and has always been, we just started NOTICING the problem 3-5 years ago) fundamentally unjust.

Posted by: DTLV on November 17, 2004 04:53 PM

OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD. OCD.

Posted by: jeff on November 17, 2004 08:01 PM

Sully is re-branding, yet again? Sheesh, he's a real can of Cheez Whiz.

Posted by: ransom on November 18, 2004 01:41 AM

Amazon.com Widgets

Now Available!
The Deplorable Gourmet
A Horde-sourced Cookbook
[All profits go to charity]

Top Headlines

Funniest thing I've read about the Virginia mess. Back when they were hustling the referendum through the assembly both Senators, Warner and Kaine, advised them to go slow and play by the rules. Louise Lucas said she respected them but didn't need advice from the "cuck chair" in the corner. The gerrymandering was overturned and Louise is heading for the big house. Edward G. Robinson voice "where's your cuck now?"
Posted by: Smell the Glove

I posted his post on twitter and it's gotten 25K views so far. Thanks, Smell the Glove

Chris
@chriswithans

"Ahhhhh ahh I put my career on the line for Louise Lucas and Jay Jones thinking they'd vault me into presidential contention and we ended up costing Democrats 20 House seats and unleashing a Reverse Dobbs ahhhhh ahhh"

Forgotten 80s Mystery Click That Sums Up the Democrat Communist Party Today
Something is wrong as I hold you near
Somebody else holds your heart, yeah
You turn to me with your icy tears
And then it's raining, feels like it's raining

TJM wonders about world building in stories, mostly The Hunger Games

"It's f**king f**ked."
-- reportedly a genuine comment offered by a "senior Labour source"
Correction: I wrote that Labour is losing 88% (now 87%) of the seats it is "defending." I think that's wrong. The right way to say it is the seats they are contesting -- that is, they don't necessarily already hold these seats, but they have put up a candidate to run for the seat. It's still very bad but not as bad as losing 87% of the seats they already held.

Basil the Great
@BasilTheGreat

🚨ED MILIBAND [a Minister in Starmer's government] SAYS KEIR STARMER WILL RESIGN AS PRIME MINISTER

He has reportedly reassured Labour MP's that Starmer will be resigning following the disastrous results tonight

It's over

"The end of the two party system in the UK" as first the Fake Conservatives and now Labour chooses political suicide rather than simply STOPPING THE INVASION
Incidentally, the only reason this didn't already happen in the US is because of the Very Bad Orange Man (who is right on 85% of all policy calls and extremely, existentially right on 15% of them)

No political party that is NOT also a doomsday religious cult would EVER choose a cataclysmic loss -- and possible extinction as a party -- to support a toxically unpopular favoritism of NON-CITIZEN ILLEGAL MIGRANTS over actual citizen voters.

Only a cult does this.

Now they've lost 84%.

Annunziata Rees-Mogg
@zatzi
If this continues Labour loses 2,148 seats tonight.

That is much worse than the worst case predictions I’ve seen.

Cataclysmic

Update: They've now lost 88% of the seats they're defending. As I mentioned earlier, I think I heard that London will not bail them out, as many of those Labour seats will probably flip to "Muslim Independent" or Green. Detroit's 5am vote will not save them.

Yup, Labour is losing 80% of its seats...

The British Patriot
@TheBritLad

🚨 BREAKING: Labour have lost 80% of all seats contested as of 2:25 AM.<
br> If this continues, Keir Starmer will be out of office next week.

Reform has surged and projected to pick up between 1700-2100 seats.

Wow, up to 1700-2100 seats. It's not incredible that this is happening. It's incredible that the Davos crowd is so absolutely determined to privilege Muslim "migrants" over the actual native population who elects them, no matter how loudly the natives scream that they want to be prioritized, that they will gladly self-extinguish as a party rather than simply representing the interests of their own voters. Astonishing.
Remember, when they call other people "cultists" -- they are the ones so imprisoned in their social reinforcement and discipline bubbles that they will choose political death rather than dare upset the Karen Enforcement Officers of their cult.
Update: Now they've lost 83% of the seats they were defending.

(((Dan Hodges)))
@DPJHodges

Reform are basically wiping Labour out in the North. It's not a defeat. It's not even a rout. Labour are simply ceasing to exist.

Nick Lowles
@lowles_nick

Tonight’s results are calamitous for Labour. Not just for Keir Starmer's leadership, but for the very future of the party

STARMERGEDDON: In early returns, Reform gains 135 seats, Labour loses 90, the Fake Conservatives lose 36 (and I didn't even know they could fall any further), the Lib Dems lose 4, and the Greens gain 6. Note that the only other party gaining seats is the Greens and they're only gaining a handful of seats.
Update: Reform now up 145, Labour down 98.
Labour projected to lose Wales -- where they've ruled for 27 years.
Fulton County Georgia just discovered 400 boxes of ballots for Labour
Update: REF +156, LAB -107, CON -45
Brutal: In four out of five council seats where Labour is defending, they've lost. 80%.
I'm sure it's not this simple, but Reform is straight taking Labour's and the "Conservatives'" seats. They've lost almost exactly what Reform gained. If understand this right (and warning, I probably don't), all of London's council seats are up for election, and Labour might lose hugely there, as their old voters abandon them for Reform, Muslim Indenpendents, and the Greens.
REF +190, LAB -134, CON -56.

Updates on the Labour collapse in council elections -- which wags are calling #Starmergeddon -- from Beege Welborne. There are about 5000 seats up for grabs, Labour is expected to lose 1,800, Reform will probably gain 1,580, up from... zero. So this would be more than that.
People claim that while Labour has adopted the Sharia Agenda to appeal to the million Muslims it allowed to migrate to the country, those voters are ditching Labour to vote for the Muslim Independent Party or the Greens. Delicious. This shadenfreude is going straight to my thighs.
Oh, and if Starmer loses about as badly as expected, Labour will toss him out of a window Braveheart style and replace him. He will announce he is resigning to spend more time with his Gay Ukrainian Male Prostitutes.

Media bias and senationalism are as old as, well, the media:

That was written by Denny O'Neill and illustrated by, get this, Frank Miller. Editor to the Stars Jim Shooter was in charge at the time.
I always thought the gag was original to the comic book, but in fact the "Threat or Menace" headline was a satirical joke about media bias and sensationalism for a long while. The Harvard Lampoon used it in a parody of Life magazine: "Flying Saucers: Threat or Menace?"

Hamas is Humiliating Trump's 'Board of Peace'
[Hat Tip: TC] [CBD]

Tucker Carlson is pretty sure Trump is a wizard

Ted Turner Dies At 87 [CBD]

Podcast: Starting a new season, CBD and Sefton discuss their personal journeys to conservative principles, is Nick Shirley the beginning of a trend?, Iran trying to reignite the war, the Left attacks itself, even on "Best Guitarist" lists, and more!

TJM definitively ranks the films of Billy Wilder, like Some Like It Hot

TJM talks about Billy Wilder